Ms Office, Two Versions On One Pc

[opalhort]

Is it possible to install Office 2003 on a PC (WIN-XP-pro) which has already Office 97 installed AND continue using both versions, if so how?. Of course not with the same databases (.mdb).

I have some .mdb's which need Office 97, whereas other databases have no problem with 2003.

opalhort

[JohnC]

I understood that Office 2003 was compatible with all previous versions and any work produced on them could be used on 2003, if this is not the case I suggest you send an e mail to microsoft with dteails and let them solve it. I am not a pc expert so not sure if you can run two versions of the smae oprogramme on one hard drive as normally the newer version opverwrites the older version. One soulution might be to partion your hard drive and have the different copies of office on the seperate drives, i:e Office 2003 on your C drive and Office 97 on the new D drive, I think that would but seems a lot of hasstle just to open documents produced on the older version and I personnaly would throw the problem at MS. Just my humble opinions.

[Tywais]

I have setup two users at our office with a similar problem. One needs to run Office 97 (windows 98) and the other, for some physics simulation software, needs Windows 98. Both still need Windows XP. I installed VMWare for them, and under it installed Windows 98 and the applications they needed (Office 97) and they are very happy with the arrangement. Microsoft also makes a program to create virutal OSes > VirtualPC which is now free.

Chances something will break trying to install 97 and 2003 (overwrite DLLs, etc.). Maybe someone has done it and will see what other's experience is.

//edit - the reason for this is specific fonts they needed under Word 97 (university reports) that are not available under WinXP - plus they are not dual-metric fonts so can't just be copied to XP and work.

[opalhort]

Chances something will break trying to install 97 and 2003 (overwrite DLLs, etc.). Maybe someone has done it and will see what other's experience is.

This is exactly my worry. Even if I install on different drives, the DLLs are all in one place.

Here is my problem in more detail:

All but one of our Access databases (.mdb) migrated from 97 and work well with 2003.

Our most important DB did migrate (after I followed suggestions from one person in this forum) and is now working but has frequent problems (especially about dates and form printing).

My idea is to run both Office 97 and 2003 on all our PCs.

opalhort

[cdnvic]

Just partition the disk and run the second Office off the new partition.

[yeti]

Just partition the disk and run the second Office off the new partition.

He would have problems with registry entries and shared files, no?

[opalhort]

Just partition the disk and run the second Office off the new partition.

He would have problems with registry entries and shared files, no?

This is also my concern.

Partitions are no problem since all PCs have two physical HDDs and each HDD has two partitions.

With Microsoft you never know how they can foul-up things even beyond the capability of the system restore point.

Since I'm not in the mood to experiment, for time reasons, I was hoping somebody tried this double install and can share his/her experience.

opalhort

[Tywais]

Running multiple versions > http://support.microsoft.com/kb/828956

"Q. Can I run multiple versions of Microsoft Office on my computer?

A. Although we do not recommend it, you can install and use more than one version of Microsoft Office on a single computer. For example, you can install and use both Microsoft Office 2003 and Microsoft Office 97 on the same computer. The exception to this is Microsoft Outlook. Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 cannot coexist with any earlier version of Microsoft Outlook. If you choose to install Office Outlook 2003, the Setup program will not allow you to keep any earlier version. Microsoft Outlook 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2000, or Microsoft Outlook 98 will be removed even if you select the Keep these programs check box in the Removing Previous Versions dialog box. Learn more about these potential issues. "

[ajarnmark]

Why does not OP make a new user account in WinXP? and run different offices in different users. If this does not hurt the objective.

[Grover]

how about running a virtual machine with the other office installed on it. ?

VMWare or similar.

[Tywais]

how about running a virtual machine with the other office installed on it. ?

VMWare or similar.

Must have missed my post above.

[Grover]

how about running a virtual machine with the other office installed on it. ?

VMWare or similar.

Must have missed my post above.

good ol vmware.

[friend2]

how about running a virtual machine with the other office installed on it. ?

VMWare or similar.

Must have missed my post above.

Ya, definitively.

VMware is cool and all, but it's slow.

Do a custom install of office97 and leave out Outlook, then install the 2003 version.

[opalhort]

Thank you very much for all your replies.

Especially to 'tywais' for the MS support link, it explains everything. Why couldn't I find that link?

Since we are lazy people, virtual machine and multiple users are not good for us.

All our PCs run on admin accounts w/o passwords (perfectly safe within our LAN and we are well protected from the outside world).

Actually the only multiple version program we would need is Access and not the entire Office suite.

I guess the easiest way would be for me to work on our old stubborn DB (.mdb) to get it to work properly with office 2003.

With the help of members of this forum I did manage to migrate the DB to 2003 and it works OK for about 90%. The problem is the entry/display of dates (related to the old Y2K matter?) and the printing of forms is all muddled up (the forms display correctly but don't print the way they do under the 97 version - printer drivers are all up-to-date!).

opalhort

[yeti]

Concerning the printing problem you could try the trick of printing to a .pdf file first, and if it's displayed correctly then print the .pdf

But that's just a trick, not a real solution.

[Hmmm]

If you only need Access, only install a second version of that, not all of Office. That should minimize likely problems. And of course install to a different folder.

I have been trialling the beta 2 of Excel 2007 on the same machine as Office 2003. They work fine, except for some problems with file associations, which I've managed to fix. For example, although XLS clearly points to the Excel 2003 exe file, clicking on an XLS file would sometimes fire up Excel 2007.

[opalhort]

Concerning the printing problem you could try the trick of printing to a .pdf file first, and if it's displayed correctly then print the .pdf

But that's just a trick, not a real solution.

My printing problem is made worse by the fact that I have to use our old (8 yo) EPSON LQ-670 dot-matrix printer because our invoice/Packing list forms are all pre-printed on NCR paper and are of non-standard size (have to use user defined size) and Access2003 seems to have problems with this printer, WORD and EXCEL2003 documents print OK on this printer.

Reports I designed later for use on A4 have no problem printing on the laser printers.

"They work fine, except for some problems with file associations, which I've managed to fix"

Hmmm, how did you fix this problem?

opalhort

[Tywais]

"They work fine, except for some problems with file associations, which I've managed to fix"

Hmmm, how did you fix this problem?

opalhort

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859

[opalhort]

"They work fine, except for some problems with file associations, which I've managed to fix"

Hmmm, how did you fix this problem?

opalhort

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307859

Yes, of course this is the way to go for general file associations, but if you have for example many .mdb files and want to associate some with one Access version and some with another Access version...........how can this be done?

opalhort

[Tywais]

Yes, of course this is the way to go for general file associations, but if you have for example many .mdb files and want to associate some with one Access version and some with another Access version...........how can this be done?

opalhort

Good point and since the extension is the same for both, can't do it (AFAIK). Will have to right click on the .mdb file and choose which version to open it with each time unless it is the default Access (2003) that it is associated with.

One way is to rename the extension from .mdb to .mdb97 and then file associate this type to Office 97, bit of a management issue but would work.

[sniffdog]

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if this is not the case I suggest you send an e mail to microsoft with dteails and let them solve it.

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Unless you got your copy at Pantip ....

[opalhort]

One way is to rename the extension from .mdb to .mdb97 and then file associate this type to Office 97, bit of a management issue but would work.

Eh, this is a good idea, never thought of it and will give it a try once I have got two versions running on the same PC. The only question is when you exit the DB it will auto save, but with which extension?

opalhort

[Tywais]

One way is to rename the extension from .mdb to .mdb97 and then file associate this type to Office 97, bit of a management issue but would work.

Eh, this is a good idea, never thought of it and will give it a try once I have got two versions running on the same PC. The only question is when you exit the DB it will auto save, but with which extension?

opalhort

I just did a quick test on it, opened it as .mdb97 and exited - it kept the extension intact when it left the program, time stamp up to date verifying the save.

[opalhort]

One way is to rename the extension from .mdb to .mdb97 and then file associate this type to Office 97, bit of a management issue but would work.

Eh, this is a good idea, never thought of it and will give it a try once I have got two versions running on the same PC. The only question is when you exit the DB it will auto save, but with which extension?

opalhort

I just did a quick test on it, opened it as .mdb97 and exited - it kept the extension intact when it left the program, time stamp up to date verifying the save.

Yes, I just did the same test with a test.mdb and it worked OK, it left the original .mdb alone and changes were saved in the .mdb97. But I did this only on a PC with O97 installed.

opalhort

[Tywais]

Yes, I just did the same test with a test.mdb and it worked OK, it left the original .mdb alone and changes were saved in the .mdb97. But I did this only on a PC with O97 installed.

opalhort

I did it with 2003, so it's not going to be a problem for you. An added advantage is it identifies the two formats readily so makes managing them simpler.